It is clear some hospitals are under so much pressure that great chasms are appearing rather than cracks.
For some of those hospitals the only hope is to declare critical incident status to enable them to call in extra help.
With ambulances queuing for hours and some patients spending two days in A&E departments, the time for that call is surely upon them.
Critical incident status would enable hospital managers to pull in staff from other specialties to help at A&E and would enable them to cancel non-emergency surgery and clinics to free up bed space.
No one wants to see operations cancelled but priority must be given to life or death emergencies.
Meanwhile, delayed discharge patients – those who are well enough to leave but can’t because of a lack of social care – are taking up vital beds.
Doctors, nurses and other health workers are doing their best to cope with the demand but there are simply not enough beds to allow a smooth flow of patients through A&E and on to wards.
Yesterday, the First Minister chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government resilience committee to discuss the winter pressures.
She said a number of measures were being taken to ease the pressures, including reducing unnecessary attendances at A&E and making effective discharge arrangements to cut pressure on hospital occupancy.
Hospitals have been trying to implement plans to deal with these for months so it will take radical intervention by the Scottish Government to prevent the NHS descending further into chaos.
But the time for that action is now. The NHS can wait no longer, it is already “burst”.
Call of the wild
If you’re struggling for a New Year resolution, you could do a lot worse than help local wildlife this year.
Studies show getting out regularly in the fresh air amid nature can offer a massive boost to our mental and physical health.
Scots made a huge difference for the environment in 2022, the country’s nature agency says, with more people taking action to help critters in their gardens and local green spaces.
But we know climate change and human activities continue to put our nature under threat.
That’s why NatureScot’s six top tips on how to help wildlife this winter are worth trying to follow – not least because they’re simple.
From keeping bird feeders topped up and letting leaves lie in parts of your garden, to using wildlife sighting apps and feeding creatures in your parks, anyone can do at least some of them.
It’s good for Scotland’s beautiful wildlife – and it’s good for our own wellbeing too.
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